Sun ONE is an architecture design concept, where you have pieces and
layers
that make up your total content delivery solution. Sun sells pieces
to fit
each part of SunONE, but you can also buy parts from other "open"
vendors
(hint: the Redmond vendor isn't one of them). Big pieces of SunONE
are the
former iPlanet suite pieces (directory server, web server, app server,
etc). Check the link from sun.com for more indepth info... (I don't
feel
like going on a sales/marketing rant tonight)
Was SunONE created to compete directly with Microsoft's Active
Directory ?
The concept of SunONE has been around for a while, since before Win2K
etc.,
so it wasn't created in reaction to anything specific from Microsoft, or
any other vendor.
If you have to compare SunONE to anything from Microsoft, it's more of
an
alternative to .Net than anything else. AD is just one small component
of
Microsoft's services. .Net is like SunONE from an architecture
standpoint,
but each block in their diagram is a specific Microsoft product,
whereas in
the SunONE diagram, it's a concept or a service that could come from any
compliant vendor (use Novell LDAP instead of SunONE Directory Server,
for
example). While Sun does sell stuff that fits each niche, and we'd love
you to buy it all from us, the concept is that by thinking about SunONE
when designing your implementation, you don't lock yourself into any
single
vendor, including Sun, for any single piece of your solution. And
_that's_
what being "open" is really all about.
I highly recommend reading the Sun website about SunONE if you are
really
interested: http://wwws.sun.com/software/sunone/
--
Bruce Timberlake
Sun Cobalt Technology Engineer
Sun Microsystems, Inc.
E: bruce.timberlake@xxxxxxx
T: 877-718-3569 / x69369